'Bwisit ako dyan!' Duterte takes swipe at US envoy

ABS-CBN News

Duterte: US ambassador 'bakla'

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has taken a swipe at United States Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, calling the diplomat "bakla" during a speech before soldiers in Camp Lapu Lapu in Cebu City Friday night.

["Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and I talked to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He was okay. I had a rift with his ambassador (Philip Goldberg), his gay ambassador. He meddled during the elections, giving statements. You're not supposed to do that."]

Goldberg is the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Manila. He is set to leave his post in October.

Duterte earlier threatened to cut ties with the U.S. and Australia after their respective ambassadors criticized the then-presidential candidate Duterte.

He challenged the two countries to cut diplomatic ties with Manila after their ambassadors criticized his joke about the jailhouse rape of a missionary.

Duterte also told the ambassadors to "shut their mouths", as controversy continued to rage over his comments in which he said he wanted to have been the first to rape the Australian woman who was brutalized and murdered in a 1989 prison riot.

In his speech in front of soldiers on Friday, Duterte also boasted of receiving a grant of $33 million from the United States during Kerry's visit.